This is my personal blog. I was Branch Secretary of Lambeth UNISON from 1992 to 2017 and a member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of UNISON, the public service union (www.unison.org.uk) from 2003 to 2017.
I am Chair of Brighton Pavilion Constituency Labour Party and of the Sussex Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
Neither the Labour Party nor UNISON is responsible for the contents of this personal blog. (Nor is my employer!)

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Sunday, October 21, 2018

Back when I
blogged more often I used to describe the regular readers of this blog as “Sid
and Doris Blogger”. I can only hope that they both now enjoy their retirement
from UNISON, since I blog so infrequently.

This weekend, a
combination of family commitments and fatigue (attributable to hormone therapy
for my prostate cancer) kept me from a number of important political activities
(including the “Super
Saturday” in Hanover and Elm Grove and a fundraising quiz in
Patcham).

One activity I
probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way for even if I could have was the “People’s Vote” march. I do
like a good demonstration, but not all mass protests are necessarily
progressive.

Two years
later, the “Countryside
Alliance” march was – rightly – generally seen as an expression of the
impotent rage of the foxhunting rural elite and their forelock-tugging
hangers-on.

The “People’s
Vote” march was not like either of these purely reactionary protests – and not
only because it was in opposition to the policies of a Conservative, rather
than a Labour Government. There are, however, those on the left who are simply
critical of the march, and its demand for another referendum before the UK
exits the EU.

Those on the politicalleft who made the tragic error of
failing to update their views about global capitalism (and hence the European
Union) for more than a generation (and therefore – in 2016 - backed a “Leave” campaign
which was led from the far right and legitimised racism) see the drive for a
second referendum as simply a cover for the creation of a new “centrist” Party.

This is daft. There
will no more be a successful new political Party in the (largely mythical)
political “centre ground” than there will be a “Lexit” (a left-wing exit from
the European Union as advocated by those who have neither political power nor
any credible programme to achieve such power).

In 1981 the
Social Democratic Party was established by Labour
right-wingers of some stature. There were none such marching yesterday. Chukka
Umunna is as likely to rise to real power in this country as the Morning Star
and the Socialist Worker are to hegemonise the workers’ movement for their
different visions of “socialism in one country.”

There are no
significant or impressive figures on the right-wing of today’s Labour Party and
neither the post-Blairite Europhiles on the Labour right nor the senile “Leninists”
who stand (proudly and foolishly) outside the Labour Party offer any sensible
way forward for workers in this country.

The campaign
for a so-called “People’s Vote” is, from the point of view of the interests of
working-class people, a contradictory creature.

On the one
hand, it expresses the interest of
our class in preventing the UK leaving the EU (which will not only fail to
achieve any of the objectives claimed by either “Brexiteers” or “Lexiteers” but
will materially weaken us as it empowers reaction). For these reasons, the “People’s
Vote” campaign is in our interests.

On the other
hand, the demand for a “second referendum” is not only posed as an alternative
to the General Election which we really need, but also used – cackhandedly and by those who know
they cannot win – as a stick with which to beat the Party leadership within
the Party. For these reasons, the “People’s Vote” campaign is contrary to our
interests.

As a socialist,
and a Labour Party member (always in that order), I want to see a Labour
Government which acts in the interests of working-class people. I want that not
because I believe that legislation alone can liberate us, but because I believe
that a socialist Labour Government, which legislates in our interests, will
also encourage and empower our movement to place ever further and more
progressive demands upon our own Government.

Among the many
things which any sensible socialist Government would need to do would be to
prevent the United Kingdom from crashing out of the European Union – and not
only because we know we cannot build socialism only in one country.

As we would
have a socialist Government in office governing an advanced capitalist economy,
we would need policies which would empower and strengthen our movement within
that context – the impact of a so-called “hard” or “no-deal” Brexit would, of
course, be the exact opposite of what we would need.

An incoming
Labour Government should not implement any prior decision to leave the European
Union (and with luck the
European Court of Justice will have ruled that the United Kingdom can
unilaterally withdraw the notice which it has given to leave the EU).

The Party’s
well-established position is that we can only support a “Brexit” deal which
meets the “six
tests.” Although these tests are based simply upon promises made by “Leave”
campaigners, they cannot possibly be met. Therefore, an incoming Labour
Government ought not to implement the “decision” of the 2016 Referendum.

We ought not to
have had the referendum in the first place (and the Labour right-wingers
running the Party at the time of the Parliamentary vote are responsible for the
Party’s failure to
oppose the referendum in Parliament). In office, “New Labour” were – of course
– quite keen on referendums (which have been the tool of despots rather than
democrats throughout history).

The same “centrist”
politicians who did not oppose the referendum are responsible for leading our
Party over the generation during which it (we) failed to defend and promote the
interests of working-class people, including in the areas which voted heavily
for “Leave” in the referendum.

The political
tradition which led the “People’s Vote” march is almost entirely responsible
for the outcome of the referendum which gave rise to the need for the march to
take place – and is quite incapable of answering the demands to which it seeks
to give voice.

A socialist
Government will – if it is serious about the transformation of our society –
need to find a way to avoid the UK leaving the EU (since that course of action
will set our objectives, and the interests of our class, back a very long way).
That should not need another referendum.

Indeed, unless
and until we have a written constitution (which I don’t necessarily want to
see), I would rather we don’t have any more referendums at all.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Today hundreds
of people marched through Brighton in defence of the National Health Service
and in opposition to austerity, in a very successful demonstration organised by
Sussex Defend the NHS.

Since I am
supposed to be taking moderate exercise I was very happy to have the
opportunity to carry the Brighton Labour Party banner for a fair bit of the
march, and was also honoured to be asked to address the rally in Regency Square
at the end of the demonstration.

I was very
pleased that Labour Party members were by far the largest contingent on the
march, albeit of course our membership overlaps with that of GMB, UNISON, Unite
and the other trade unions who were also present.

I was even more
pleased to be able to pledge, on behalf of the Labour Party in Brighton and
Hove, which I know to be true, that we shall oppose all and any future attempts
to privatise public services. (There is no need for any other left-wing political
parties now that our Labour Party has rediscovered our purpose, and I welcome
the growing recognition of this.)

Most of all
though, I was pleased to be part of an activity which will, I think, be ever
more important to twenty first century politics – the mobilisation of working
class people.

The era of
professional politicians, to whom the mass of the people delegate
responsibility for the management of society, is at an end. In most of the
world, this ending (which was horrendously (mis?)described by Gove in the run
up to the tragic result of the 2016 referendum as an opposition to “experts”)
is leading to a collapse of the political “Centre” to the benefit of the hard-
and far-right, as social democracy continues its generation long decline.

The “populism”
of the right, offers nothing to working-class people. Indeed its nature
emphasises that it is not only the social gains of the last century which are
at risk, but the democratic gains of the previous century.

Here in
Britain, almost uniquely, we have rescued social democracy from the local
consequences of its global decline by the good fortune of finding a socialist
leadership for our Party of the Left. This means that we have a chance to work
for Labour administrations, both nationally and locally, which will be led by
socialists.

However, we
must not give false faith to our people in the idea that all they need to do is
vote for the right (left) candidates and then sit back while (better and more left wing) professional
politicians deliver social justice.

The limited
mobilisations which we saw today (to defend the health service in Brighton and
contest the far right in London) are – like the more substantial German
mobilisation against the far right - simply a token of the continuous mobilisation
which we now need, so that we can support – and hold to account – the socialists
whom we hope to elect to political office.

The real threat
which a socialist-led Labour Government poses to the ruling-class and the
establishment is not so much from the legislation which it might pass (although
this will be a threat to entrenched privilege). More threatening still will be
the empowerment of working class people given the hope and encouragement which
a Government acting in our interests will offer.

This
empowerment can create a virtuous cycle in which a radicalised movement places
progressive demands upon elected politicians, whose positive responses to those
demands will provide further encouragement to the movement which can then make
further demands.

At the same
time a socialist administration (and this is as true locally as it is
nationally) will face attacks and sabotage from every quarter (not excluding
from within our own ranks) – and it will only be the mobilisation of our class,
in our workplaces and communities and on our streets, that can hope to hold
even the best of our elected leaders to their own honestly made promises.

Or – as I put
it rather more succinctly when speaking in Regency Square this afternoon – this
is a class war, which has been declared upon us, and in which we have no option
but to defend ourselves.